Roatan’s diving is simply amazing! With huge coral formations, dramatic walls, tunnels, caverns and wrecks to explore, you are sure to have the dive trip of a life time on our beautiful island.
Ever been diving on the second largest barrier reef in the world? Roatan is located on the tip of the meso-american barrier reef. This magnificent coral reef formation extends over 1000 miles from Mexico, past Belize and along the coast of Honduras including the Bay Islands. See what our recent visitors think of diving in Roatan…
"Every location we dove was only about a 5 minute boat ride from their school and probably the best diving we’ve ever experienced. We’ll be back here again for sure!."
Prevailing deep water currents bring important nutrients and aquatic larvae drifting through Roatan’s waters throughout the year. These are just some of the many reasons why over 95% of the Caribbean marine life species can be found in the sea here.
The entire reef surrounding the island is a protected marine reserve. Laws limiting fishing and helpful guidelines for divers, swimmers and snorkelers have been in place for many years. This has allowed the aquatic creatures here to thrive. You will be thrilled by the abundance of life under water in Roatan !
The topography of Roatan’s reef is extremely varied. Honduras literally means “the depths” and was named after the deep waters that Christopher Columbus encountered here during his voyage. Roatan island sits right on edge of the Cayman Trench which plummets down to depths of more than 3000ft. With so many different types of underwater habitats to dive on, we try to mix it up so you see all the parts of the reef you are interested in when you dive with us.
Roatan is surrounded by a fringing coral reef formation, so most of the reef around the island is only a hundred yards out from the shore. Though it starts shallow, with a depth of just 15ft in places, the dramatic reef wall drops to way beyond recreational diving limits of 140 feet.
In some locations, we can dive for up to 20 minutes over relatively flat areas covered in a multitude of hard and soft coral species before reaching the reef wall. As well as all kinds of reef fish, here we also see many different shrimp, crab and lobster in crevices between the corals.
Roatan’s reef wall generally crests at at depth of between 40ft and 60ft, where you will see huge schools of Wrasse and Chromis. The wall often slopes gently, but in many places has a sheer drop down into the depths! A great place to see turtles feeding on the huge sponges along the reef.
Large expanses of sand are home to many marine species. Rays feed on creatures hidden beneath the sand. Jaw fish, and Blennies make nests in these areas and flounders are often seen. And the light reflecting off the sea bed is ideal for getting great underwater images!
Let us know what kind of reef habitats interest you and we’ll be sure to take you to dive spots you will love. Find out more about the….
Throughout much of Roatan’s reef, water movement has caused the coral to form tunnels and large caverns we can explore. This provides an exciting challenge for more experienced divers to swim through the dappled light filtering through from above. We see all kinds of life while diving in these cracks in the coral reef. Schools of Glassy Sweepers are common, and many nudibranchs can be seen if you look closely.
Roatan has several interesting deep ship wrecks to dive on, many of which are now completely encrusted in coral. These sunken vessels are home to lots of schooling fish including gigantic Groupers and Snappers. Eels like to shelter inside these ships and lots of macro life can be found. If you want to learn how to dive on Roatan’s reef or simply wish to improve your diving skills so you can visit our more advanced sites, check out our…
No matter what type of diving you enjoy, Roatan island offers something for everyone. Just let us know the kind of reef habitats that interest you. At Octopus Dive School, we’ll be sure to take you to dive spots that you will love throughout your visit. And because we have so many places to go diving on Roatan island, you can be sure you won’t be taken to the same spot twice… Unless you choose to of course!
Because of how Roatan’s reef is formed, it’s just a short boat ride from the beach at Octopus Dive School to where the coral reef begins. This gives us easy access to over 50 great dive sites within only 15 minutes of our dive center and allows us to do one tank dives with a refreshment break on land in between. There are twice as many amazing sites to explore on two tank trips. We also arrange special excursions for adventurous divers. You can go diving in Roatan at dawn, at night or if you dare… You can go on a dive with reef sharks all around you at one special location!
We take pride in offering an unbeatable personalized service to our divers and we want you to have the best dive vacation ever with us. As scuba diving professionals with many years of experience in the business, we have thought of everything we can to make your dive trip to Roatan awesome! Learn what it’s like to go…
The Roatan Marine Park organization was established in 2005 using funds gained from local tourism and grants from USAID, Coral and WWF. Since then they have replaced all the marine infrastructure and are responsible for installing and maintaining the moorings and channel markers we use every day when we go diving on Roatan.
The non profit organisation also provides support the to the community through educational programs which promote environmental awareness. Their regular patrols help prevent poaching of our precious marine life. Spear fishing, net fishing, anchoring on the reef, and the collection of conch and lobster are strictly prohibited.
Touching any part of the reef or it’s inhabitants can be potentially harmful to the delicate organisms we see while we are scuba diving on Roatan. By maintaining good buoyancy control and adopting our “look but don’t touch” policy, our divers can help to conserve the beauty of Roatan’s underwater environment for years to come.
Octopus Dive School has been operating on Roatan since 2005. We take pride in offering an exceptional personalized service and diver safety is our top priority.